Hello everyone,
Today we’re introducing something a bit different from what we usually see on this blog: a Windows Phone 7 3D application:
Microsoft France recently launched a challenge of Windows Phone 7 applications (the prize is an occasion to demo the application in front of Steve Ballmer and a few other high profile CEOs). As we thought that such a meeting could be interesting and as we had an idea of a potential application, we decided to give it a try. This was also a good occasion to see what was possible on this new platform.
Our “Interactive 3D assembly manual” is designed to replace furniture assembly instructions. 3D gives a real advantage in this kind of application as you can really see the instructions from the exact angle you need; and the fact that the application runs on a phone makes it very accessible. This is of course only a first prototype (which was developed in a few days), a more complete application would probably include the ability to directly download the 3D model from the internet by just scanning the barcode of the furniture you’ve just bought.
If you like this application and want to vote for it, the contest is on facebook (Please click the “like” button under the facebook video). As said before, this was only a first try, but we do believe in the potential of these new platforms (phones, tablets…), and eventually we plan to make SimplyCube applications compatible with them.
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As announced before, SimplySim will be present at the Laval Virtual 2010. The Laval Virtual is the first European event dedicated to enhanced and virtual reality, real time 3D and interactive techniques and takes place in Laval France (1 hour and a half from Paris in TGV) from April 7th to April 11th 2010. This year is the 12th edition of the tradeshow, and SimplySim first participation. The entrance is free during the professional day as long you have an invitation … invitation that we are happy to provide right here.
The Laval Virtual will be the first public presentation of the editors of the SimplyCube. The SimplyEdit, SimplyPhysic and SimplyShader are easy to use tools designed to help you create rapidly any professional 3D application: simulations, serious games, marketing applications, video games…
First preview of the SimplyEdit, SimplyCube's 3D scene edition tool
We will also present our latest demo created using the SimplyCube 3D simulation engine and editors: our UAV Demo, our robotics simulation demo, our underwater demo, and a new “Nanorobot demo” (if you follow @VB_Simply3D you only have an idea of what to expect for this one…).
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When we launched our beta a little more than a month ago, one of our main expectations was to see how people will review and comment our product. We’ve received recently a first in depth review of the beta by a PhD student at the Department of Computing of the Imperial College of London. To let you judge by yourself here is the conclusion of the review:
“The tool claims to be “The easiest tool to create real-time 3d software”, this beta release is a first step at this. It provides a good SDK for a rendering engine with physics. This provides some novel features such as the support for multiple physics engines in the same application and a nice Day/Night lighting system. The SDK looks like a good stepping stone to an intuitive user interface. Which is due in a future release. The engine is meant to support robotics and simulations however the beta currently gives limited intuition on how will it fulfils this role.
In summary this is an interesting product since it leverages and extends a number technically competent products from Microsoft namely the .Net framework in C#, Microsoft’s Robotics Studio and the XNA Games Studio. This provides a good starting point and it will be interesting to see how this product develops.”
Click to read the full report (PDF)
This first independent review comes as a support for our SimplyCube, because although only a fraction of the final product has been tested (the editors are not yet available in the beta), the strong points highlighted by the review are the one we’ve been working for:
- An easy to use 3D real time simulation SDK
- A multi-physics engine, physics simulation
- Advanced 3D rendering with post processing and lightning effects
The product continues to evolve, and as I said in last week’s post the next step is a series of demos showing a more advanced use of the engine. Of course, if you want to get a better idea of what our product is worth, register for the beta and test the product by yourself! And if you make your own review of our product, we’ll be glad to post it here.
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About a month ago we launched the beta version of the simulation engine of the SimplyCube. It’s time to make an update on how things are going, what we’ve been doing lately, and what we’ll be doing next.
Microsoft Techdays video
The official launch of the SimplyCube beta was marked by a one hour introduction session at the Microsoft Techdays in Paris. Microsoft has just released the video of this session (embedded here, video in French) and of the other sessions of the TechDays (which I advise you to watch if you have time).
SimplyCube beta
Today a little more than 150 first beta testers have received a copy of the SimplyCube beta, a larger number of you have already registered, but we’re increasing the number of testers slowly to ensure everyone has a great experience. For now the feedback is mostly positive, and for the second month we’ll open the number of testers more freely.
Talking of our website, we have completed a few sections that were missing when we’ve launched it last month. Check out the gallery section and the product description section to see what have changed. These two more detailed sections should give you a better idea of what our product is about.
What’s next? Laval virtual 2010, more demo.
The major next step for SimplySim will be our presence at the Laval Virtual 2010. This tradeshow focused on Virtual Reality, but also simulations, serious games, and 3D marketing applications, will be the occasion for us to unveil the editors of the SimplyCube, more demo of what can be done with our product and to release more stuff in the beta.
One of the main demands about the beta was to get more available demonstrations and examples (I know at least a few of you want to get their hands on our UAV demo). We are currently working on a series of demonstration showing each step of a real project that should be a good addition to the tutorials already included in the demo. Julien Mercier, a student from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis who has joined us for a six month internship will be responsible for the creation of this series of demo. You can follow his progress day by day on the SimplyCube on his twitter account: @VB_Simply3D. This should be an interesting test for the ease of use of our product, to show what a trainee can achieve in a few weeks.
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In the first post of this blog we’ve introduced briefly our simulation engine. Now we are moving closer to the release of the first beta version of this engine and it’s time start talking about what’s coming next. And this is the SimplyCube.
The SimplyCube
The SimplyCube is the real commercial name of our product offer; it is composed of two elements: the simulation engine, and a set of editors. The SimplyEngine is for software developers, and though we’ve made it as simple and easy to use as possible, creating a full simulation scene is always much easier with graphical edition tools. Each of these editors addresses a specific aspect of creating a 3D application. Used independently they allow precise tuning and customization of each element of a real time 3D scene. Used together they allow quick editing of a complete simulation scene, with no specific knowledge of 3D software development. Today we’ll present the first four editors we’ll release:
The SimplyEdit
The SimplyEdit, is our 3D scene editor. This is the central tool where you can set up the 3D scene. From the definition of the basic setting of the scene (ground, water, sky) to arranging objects and light sources in the scene to finally setting up the last details before importing the scene in your application.
Here’s a quick list of things you can use in this tool to define the scene:
- Terrain (ground, water, underwater, sky)
- Objects (we can import any model created by Autodesk software, more detail in “asset compiler”)
- Lights and shadows (several lights and shadow type available)
- Sounds (2D or 3D sound sources)
- Post processing effect (for advanced rendering)
The edition possibilities of SimplyEdit are however kept simple, to keep the user interface understandable, pleasant and easy to use. For most of the simulation elements, you’ll simply have to choose between different options in a list. For example the 3D model are not created or modified by the SimplyEdit, you can just choose which model to import and where to set them up in the scene. Of course we leave you the possibility to control and edit things more in depth, but this is done separately in the other editors (to keep our example, to define in detail how a specific 3D model should look, how it should react to lights, you’ll have to use the SimplyShader editor).
The Asset Compiler
The Asset Compiler is an essential tool to import assets in our simulation engine (a first version of the Asset Compiler will be available in the beta of the Simulation Engine). It can process any 3D model file in the .FBX file format, which mean you can import any 3D model created by Autodesk 3D edition tools (Maya, 3DS Max …). We are also compatible with the .X file format so you can import any XNA compatible 3D model. The asset compiler can also import textures files (images in BMP, JPG, DDS…) and shaders (.fx) created by FX Composer (Nvidia) or Render Monkey. This ensures two important things:
- You can rely on the high quality creation tools of other software editors (Autodesk, Nvidia, AMD…)
- If you have already existing libraries of 3D models, you can easily import them in our tools.
The SimplyPhysics
The SimplyPhysics editor is a unique tool to define every physic property of a 3D object. As we’ve seen before, accurate physic simulation is essential, as it guarantee the realistic behavior of objects in a 3D scene. To ensure this accurate physic simulation, it is essential to define the properties of every 3D objects. With the SimplyPhysics, you can define:
- The mass/or density of any object
- Simple collision shapes for accurate and efficient physic collisions
- The physics properties of objects (damping, inertia, force and torque)
- The material properties of objects (friction, elasticity)
- Joints (to create complex physics objects)
It is important to note that thanks to our multi physic engine support, the properties of the objects are defined for every physic engine in a single editor. Of course, the 3D models we provide with our simulations are already set up with correct physic settings, so if you’re a novice user you can create simulation without having to bother about physic concepts.
The SimplyShader
The SimplyShader is an edition tool where you can define and configure the “shaders” that affects a 3D object. “Shaders” are advanced 3D graphics techniques that enable very realistic 3D rendering in real time. In the SimplyShader you can add details and texture to an existing 3D model, set up the way the object react to light, or the reflection of an object. Here is a list of the type of “Shader” you can define in this editor:
- Multi layered surface
- Normal and Parallax mapping (add relief to an object)
- Self illumination (for object that are also light sources)
- Reflections
- Specular mapping (define the way the object react to light)
Upcoming editors
We have several other editors planned for 2010, 2011 and 2012, they will bring new easy edition capabilities and give you more control on the simulation. We’ll announce them on this blog.
Real time 3D simulation scene created with the SimplyCube
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